The free lecture starts at 7:30 p.m. in OC’s Judd Theatre. A panel discussion and free book-signing reception will follow. Lecture seating can be reserved at www.oc.edu/mcbridecenter.

During his visit, Hwang also will participate in symposia with board members of Ecumenica, a national journal and scholars association for theater and faith.

“Hwang continuously manages to navigate the precarious boundaries of enthnography, cultural criticism, and dramatic composition with facility and tenderness,” said Carolyn Roark, editor in chief of Ecumenica. “His contributions to American and world stages serve as a credit to the McBride Center’s commitment to exploring the breadth of the human condition through the humanities.”

Hwang received a Tony Award for the 1998 production of “M Butterfly,” a drama inspired by the music of Puccini. The play starred John Lithgow and BD Wong on Broadway, with the cast later including Anthony Hopkins. The 1993 film starred Jeremy Irons.

His most recent work to be performed on Broadway is “Chinglish,” a satirical look at the use of English in business communication between Western and Chinese enterprises.

He received the prestigious Steinberg Award for American Drama this year.

“Hwang remains a durable consummate of several dramatic mediums – librettist, dramatist and children’s plays,” OC theater professor Dr. Barrett Huddleston said. “His pedigree, accolades and social consciousness elevate his work among the best of the American theatrical experience.”

The McBride Lecture will serve as the keynote address for the annual meeting of the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, which will bring scholars from five surrounding states to OC’s campus for panel discussions by scholars and for student research presentations.

The SWCCL program will be coordinated by program chair Dr. Ben Myers, professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University and arrangements chair Merle Gatewood, associate professor of English and French at Oklahoma Christian.

The McBride Center is named for Dr. Bailey and Joyce McBride, who have been academic leaders in the English faculty, campus community and Oklahoma’s higher education community since the 1950s.

“At Oklahoma Christian, we aspire to transform the lives of our students, faculty and community toward greater scholarship, faith and service. This always has included a vigorous public engagement with the humanities,” said Dr. Scott LaMascus, director of OC’s McBride Center for Public Humanities. “Bailey McBride has championed the humanities as a professor, chief academic officer and community wise man. He loves people and ideas, so nothing could be more natural than honoring Bailey and Joyce with these activities.”

Endowment and operational funding for the McBride Center is made available by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Oklahoma Humanities Council, the Kirkpatrick Family Fund and the Oklahoma City Community Foundation provided additional funding. Generous annual gifts have come from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation in New York City and the Inasmuch Foundation of Oklahoma City.